The sample analyzers for measuring items associated with various aspects of the sample such as blood and urine are being used in hospitals and examination centers. Among such sample analyzers, a great amount of samples are processed using a plurality of types of reagents in immune analyzers and blood coagulation analyzers.
Samples that require measurement result to be urgently notified to determine the treatment policy at an early stage or to determine the necessity of other examinations coexist in the samples processed by the sample analyzer. In this case, however, it is difficult to understand how much time is required to obtain the measurement result of the target sample in the conventional sample analyzer.
Thus, an automatic sample processing device capable of automatically calculating when a final processing result of a specific sample can be obtained, and displaying the calculated time information has been proposed. In the device described in Patent Publication JP H07-280815, identification information of the sample to be set is input to the calculation, control, and display devices through keyboard operation when setting the sample in the device. When the desired sample is specified, in the calculation, control, and display devices, it is determined that which station of a plurality of stations the sample is located, and the time until analysis is terminated is calculated and displayed from the station where the sample is currently positioned.
According to the device described in Patent Publication JP H07-280815, the remaining time until the analysis of the specific sample is terminated can be understood, but the time until the analysis of all the samples scheduled to be analyzed in the relevant sample analyzer is terminated cannot be understood, and thus the time management in the sample analyzer cannot be adequately performed.